News daily updated News at www.bioplasticsmagazine.com Cooperation on chemical recycling of plastic waste BASF (Ludwigshafen, Germany), Quantafuel (Oslo, Norway) and REMONDIS (Lünen, Germany) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly evaluate a cooperation in chemical recycling including a joint investment into a pyrolysis plant for plastic waste. It is intended that Remondis, one of the world’s leading waste and water management companies, supplies suitable plastic waste to the plant and BASF uses the resulting pyrolysis oil as feedstock in its production Verbund as part of its ChemCycling TM project. Quantafuel intends to provide the technology and to operate the plant. The company is a specialist for the pyrolysis of mixed plastic waste and the purification of the resulting pyrolysis oil; the technology is jointly developed and being held with BASF. The location of the pyrolysis plant will be evaluated together. Each year, almost 20 million tonnes of plastic waste in Europe go unrecycled. By establishing chemical recycling as a complementary solution to mechanical recycling it is possible to bring back more plastic waste into the materials cycle, which would otherwise be incinerated. The pyrolysis technology can be used to process plastic waste streams that are not recycled mechanically, e.g. for technological or economic reasons. To maximize a circular economy for plastics, the parties will identify which of the waste plastics provided by Remondis could undergo chemical recycling in the future. “BASF has set itself the goal to process 250,000 tonnes of recycled feedstock annually from 2025 onwards. In this regard, it is important to use feedstock derived from plastic waste that would otherwise not have undergone recycling,” said Lars Kissau, Senior Vice President Global Strategic Business Development at BASF’s Petrochemicals division. Legislation on EU and national level will create the framework for chemical recycling and therefore shape the ability how it can contribute to a more circular economy for plastics. This includes acknowledging that products based on chemically recycled feedstock are counted towards achieving recycled content targets. Pyrolysis oil derived from plastic waste is fed into BASF’s Verbund production, thereby saving the same amount of fossil resources. Since the pyrolysis oil is inserted directly at the beginning of the chemical value chain, the final sales products have the exact same properties as products made from fossil feedstock. The share of recycled material is allocated to the end products according to a third-party certified mass balance approach which allows BASF to offer its customers certified products carrying the name affix Ccycled TM . MT www.basf.com Neste, Mitsui Chemicals and Toyota Tsusho collaborate Neste, Mitsui Chemicals, and Toyota Tsusho. recently announced that they are joining forces to enable Japan’s first industrial-scale production of renewable plastics and chemicals from 100 % biobased hydrocarbons. In this collaboration, Mitsui Chemicals will use Neste RE, 100 % biobased hydrocarbons, to replace a part of the fossil feedstock in the production of a variety of plastics and chemicals at its crackers within Osaka Works during 2021. In doing so, Mitsui Chemicals will become Japan’s first company to use biobased feedstock in its crackers. The collaboration between Neste, Mitsui Chemicals, and Toyota Tsusho will enable brand owners and other potential clients in the Asian market, particularly in Japan, to start incorporating renewable plastics and chemicals into their products and offerings. Significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by shifting to biobased hydrocarbons For this collaboration, Neste, a forerunner in producing renewable and recycled feedstock alternatives for the plastics and chemicals industry, will produce its Neste RE feedstock entirely from renewable raw materials, such as biobased waste and residue oils, without any fossil oil. By using Neste RE, Mitsui Chemicals is able to produce plastics and chemicals with significantly reduced greenhouse gas emissions over their life cycle – spanning from the raw materials stage all the way through to product disposal – when compared to products made using fossil feedstock, such as petroleum naphtha. Derivatives retain the same high quality as conventional petroleum-based products The introduction of Neste-produced biobased hydrocarbons as feedstock at the crackers will allow Mitsui Chemicals to produce renewable ethylene, propylene, C4 fraction, and benzene (among others) and process them into basic chemicals such as phenol, or plastics such as polyethylene and polypropylene, without altering the high-quality of these derivatives; the quality will be on par with conventional products. Mitsui Chemicals and Toyota Tsusho intend to acquire International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC), which is widely accepted in Europe as a system for the certification of products from biobased feedstock. The mass balance based ISCC Plus certification aims at driving up adoption of renewable content even in supply chains that feature complex production processes, such as those common in the chemical industry. MT www.neste.com https://jp.mitsuichemicals.com/en https://www.toyota-tsusho.com/english 8 bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/21] Vol. 16
Renewable Materials Conference & Award Events For the first time, the nova-Institute (Hürth, Germany) presented highlights and innovations from bio- and CO 2 - based chemicals and materials as well as from chemical recycling. Or in other words: all material solutions based on renewable carbon. They have the potential to replace petrochemicals by 2050. All additional fossil carbon from the ground must be substituted to tackle climate change at its roots. The three-day Renewable Materials Conference (18 – 20 May, online) attracted 420 visitors, thus exceeded all expectations. The unique combination of topics created a completely new platform for presenting solutions to representatives from other industries and for building new networks. And this opportunity was used extensively – thanks to the advanced online conference system: 60 speakers, 11 panel discussions, 500 public posts and 1,500 networking activities proved the lively exchange during the three conference days. Extensive information can be found on the website and in the conference journal available at www.renewable-materials.eu. The conference advisory board selected six companies from 36 innovative and excellent submissions – all 36 are listed individually in the conference journal – to showcase their technologies and applications to the audience. All the products presented are already available on the market or will be launched soon. The three winners were selected by the participants on the second day of the conference. The innovation award was sponsored by Covestro (Germany) and awarded jointly with the nova-Institute (Germany). And here are the three winners in detail: First place: Plantics (The Netherlands) & Vepa (The Netherlands): Most sustainable chair ever from hemp fibres and thermoset bioresin Dutch furniture manufacturer Vepa is the first in the world to launch a collection of chairs with a shell of a unique biomaterial. The used materials hemp fibre and bioresin are both fully biological, plant-based, and recyclable. The unique bio-based resin and material are part of a new family of bio-based materials that have been developed by Plantics and is patented worldwide for many different applications. Plantics and Vepa collaborated intensively for two years to turn the biomaterial into a high-quality seat shell. The collection is produced entirely in the Netherlands and currently includes chairs and bar stools. The production process absorbs more CO 2 than it emits. In addition, the chairs are designed in such a way that the various parts are easy to separate and materials can be reused endlessly. www.vepa.nl or www.plantics.nl Second place: Carbios (France): First clear plastic bottles from enzymatically recycled textile waste Carbios is the first and only company that develops biological processes to revolutionise the end-of-life of plastics and textiles. The mission is to provide an industrial solution to the recycling of PET plastics and textiles. This enzymatic recycling technology deconstructs any type of PET plastic waste into its basic components (monomers) which can then be reused to produce new PET plastics of virgin quality. In 2020, the first transparent plastic bottle from enzymatically recycled polyester textile waste was produced. Mechanical recycling technologies cannot recycle textile waste efficiently. In contrast, this new enzymatic process enables polyester fibres to be upcycled to a high-quality grade of PET suitable for the production of clear bottles. See also our article on page 14. www.carbios.com/en/enzymatic-recycling Third place: LanzaTech (USA/Switzerland): CO 2 recycling for CarbonSmart Cleaning In 2020, Switzerland’s largest retail company, Migros, and its subsidiary, Mibelle Group, launched a range of liquid cleaning products containing LanzaTech CarbonSmart Ethanol as part of Migros Plus Oeco Power and Potz cleaning ranges. These products are now on sale in Migros supermarkets in Switzerland. The CarbonSmart Ethanol is produced from recycled carbon from steel emissions. The new pathway reduces greenhouse gas emissions and keeps additional fossil resources in the ground, protects biodiversity and avoids land-use change. The significant contribution to sustainability was validated through an independent life cycle analysis and the approach received support from experts at WWF in Switzerland. www.lanzatech.com The nova-Institute is looking forward to welcoming visitors of next year’s Renewable Materials Conference back on-site in Cologne, because one thing the participants still missed: the fantastic dinner buffet and a cold Kölsch (local beer speciality from Cologne) on tap. The next conference is planned as a hybrid event in May 2022. Further information on the next conference will be available soon. www.renewable-materials.eu bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/21] Vol. 16 9
